These bells, rising tier above tier in a belfry, the smallest highest, the great, ponderous bells of the bass notes lowest, are not free to swing, but are fixed to huge beams, and are sounded by clappers connected by a wilderness of wires to a keyboard which is played upon by the bell-master or carillonneur.

All Sainte Lesse came to its doorways to listen to the playing of their beloved Carillonnette; the bell-music ebbed and swelled under the stars; the ancient Flemish masterpiece, written by some carillonneur whose bones had long been dust, became magnificently vital again under the enchanted hands of the little mistress of the bells.

This wouldn't surprise me. I used to play a set of variations, Engels Nachtegaeltje, by Jacob van Eyck. He was a Dutch recorder virtuoso, of noble birth but blind hence his musical profession. Famous for his work as a carillonneur but also paid an additional six silver pieces a year to play his flute (i.e. recorder) in the cemetery when people were strolling there. Or something like that. Anyhow, he was born at the end of the 16th century and died in 1657. He worked in Utrecht, though, not Bruges, but the bell-ringing tradition is strong in the Benelux region so a continuous post of four hundred years doesn't really surprise me.